ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM
Directed and Written by Alex Gibney
Certificate 15
Reviewed by Cardinal Cox
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DVD of this film available from Amazon.co.uk |
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DVD of this film available from Amazon.com
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Write Dope on Pnuk part 19
Most famous of a string of financial collapses of the early 21st Century, this has it all. Political intrigue (implied); creative accounting (in the way that Charles Dickens was "a bit creative"); strippers (cut to Philip Glass music); and finally an implosion that has ruined tens of thousands of the average workers, and at least seen the bosses getting real gaol terms.tracks.
First, headed by a guy who campaigned hard for deregulation in the American power industry, they went on to fraudulently turn losses into profits. They got the banks to go along with the fantasy and ensured that most journalists toed the line. They also created artificial power shortages in California to ensure that prices stayed high (reminding me of a couple of incidents in London in the summer of 2006, coincidence, surely). This is a criticism of market capitalism in general.
What was especially good about this documentary was that it didn't overly simplify, but explained it all clearly. There was no annoying dramatic reconstructions, rather archive footage and mysteriously recorded telephone conversations.
It has comedy, drama, sex and one death. Picks at a scab and shows the tender pink economics underneath.
© All work copyright of Cardinal Cox.
